Experiential Education News

I would like to invite you to participate in some upcoming work sessions to provide feedback on experiential performance assessment.

We just received results from the PCOA and 3rd year OSCEs. I would like to discuss how we 'coach' our current PD4 students regarding feedback on their performance on the PCOA and OSCE exams. In some cases, students will need a specific plan to help them work on areas during their APPEs. If you are interested, here are the dates/times we are targeting:

Session 1: Tuesday, July 14 at 10 AM
IPPE exam Brown Bag, July 16 at 11:30 AM

Session 2: Thursday, July 30 at 11 AM
PCOA Brown Bag, August 3 at 11:30

Session 3 (if needed): Wednesday, August 5 at 3 PM

Here is the tentative agenda which will be paced throughout the sessions:

1)      Guiding principles for providing feedback about performance
2)      Strategies to deliver PCOA and OSCE results and provide 'coaching'
3)      Timeframe, milestones, and considerations for current PD4s
4)      Mechanisms for monitoring and accountability
5)      Metrics to gauge success of this pilot process

Individuals within the experiential program have been working during the past 6 months on new initiatives/modifications regarding our approach to preceptor advancement. One of the experiential action plans is related to how we define reward, recognize, and promote preceptor enrichment. Some draft documents have been created based on literature and faculty/preceptor focus groups.

I would like to invite you to participate in some upcoming work sessions to provide additional feedback. This is an important step to finalizing our approach to future programming especially as it relates to preceptor development. If you are unable to attend, please share this invitation with others you think would be able to assist us.

Session 1: Thursday, July 9 at 10:00 AM
Session 2: Tuesday, July 14 at 1:00 PM
Session 3: Thursday, July 30 at 3:00 PM
Session 4 (if needed): Monday, August 10 at 11:00 AM

Please let me know if you are able to attend so we can plan accordingly. I know your schedules are very busy and completely understand if you can't make all sessions. Please come to as many as possible. Here is the tentative agenda which will be paced throughout the sessions:

1)      Mechanisms to recognize and reward preceptors' excellence
2)      Strategies to determine preceptors' needs for preceptor enrichment
3)      Strategies to develop educational skills of preceptors using multiple
         methods/modalities
4)      Activities to facilitate preceptors' networking opportunities with each other
5)      Methods to improve management and administration of experiential courses
6)      Continuous professional development expectations for preceptors

Drafts of our work will be posted here for your comment. Stay tuned!

Individuals within the experiential program have been working during the past 6 months on new initiatives/modifications regarding our approach to maintaining quality experiential education. One of the experiential action plans is related to how we define quality (e.g. precepting requirements, practice site criteria) and measure quality improvement. Some draft documents have been created based on literature and faculty/preceptor focus groups.

I would like to invite you to participate in some upcoming work sessions to provide additional feedback. This is an important step to finalizing our policy and procedures. If you are unable to attend, please share this invitation with others you think would be able to assist us.

Session 1: Tuesday, July 7 at 3:00 PM
Session 2: Thursday, July 16 at 9:00 AM
Session 3: Monday, July 27 at 12 noon
Session 4 (if needed): Friday, July 31 at 1:00 PM

Please let me know if you are able to attend so we can plan accordingly. I know your schedules are very busy and completely understand if you can't make all sessions. Please come to as many as possible. Here is the tentative agenda which will be paced throughout the sessions:

1)      Experiential Education: Quantitative and Qualitative Aspects of Quality
2)      Practice Site Quality Indicators
3)      Precepting Quality Indicators
4)      Preceptor Qualifications, Credentials, Development
5)      Mechanisms for Effective and Consistent Assessment of Quality

We will post draft documents here for future review and comment. Stay tuned!

A Summit was held on July 1, 2009 with our Experiential Associates to discuss how we can improve our support for students and preceptors in Greater Minnesota. A draft set of roles and responsibilities were discussed (Functions of Greater Minnesota Experiential Associates.doc). In addition, the group brainstormed program strengths and strategies for improvement as well as analyzing the distribution of students in Greater Minnesota and strategies for supporting them.

First Responders

To improve our communication and meet student needs, we have designated the following individuals to be 'first responders'. These individuals will triage all experiential issues to the appropriate person for prompt action. You should contact these individuals first since our experiential roles are changing.

If your home campus is Duluth, contact Terri Krause (tkrause@d.umn.edu) at 218-726-6033.

If your home campus is the Twin Cities, contact Trinity Muller (mulle276@umn.edu) at 612-624-1596.

The following link provides more details regarding our experiential associates that help serve our program in Greater Minnesota as well as other changes within the experiential office.

Exp Ed Memo to Preceptors 0609.pdf

The following link provides a summary of the Transition Plan for reorganizing the experiential education program. The initial transition team is composed of Charles Taylor, Randy Seifert, Rod Carter, Chris Jolowsky, and Amy Leslie. The goal is to maintain optimal experiential operations, engage faculty in transition planning, complete accreditation action plans, and suggest measures to ensure success through improved quality, effectiveness, efficiency, satisfaction, and innovation.

Reorganization Plan.pdf

Rod Carter, associate dean for professional and external relations, will be assuming new, expanded responsibilities as a function of his associate dean role within the College this next year. This comes at a time as he transitions into his leadership role as president-elect of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) and begins new endeavors for building professional and external relationships. This will necessitate workload reassignment for the experiential education program.  Beginning, July 1, 2009, Chris Jolowsky will become the interim executive director of experiential education.

 

This change comes at a critical time in the college's curriculum revision efforts. External consultants reviewed our experiential program on May 6-7, 2009. They provided recommendations in terms of future goals and objectives which I will be sharing with you in the near future. The recommendations suggest the need for experiential reorganization and a thoughtful analysis of our current infrastructure and vision for the program.  Rod foresaw that his time would be increasingly spent elsewhere as he officially becomes president-elect and fully supported the consultants' recommendation for experiential leadership in a full-time capacity. Please review the full memo via the link below.

Exp Ed Memo 0609.pdf

The following provides an overview of recommendations from our external consultants who reviewed our experiential programs. A more detailed documented is posted for review also.
Executive Summary.pdf

Three nationally recognized experts in the field of experiential education were invited (May 6-7, 2009) to review our experiential programs and provide recommendations on how to improve our program for the future. These individuals met with multiple stakeholders (e.g. faculty, students, preceptors, experiential associates, alumni) over two days including sites visits to the Indian Health Services, Fairview Health System, Hennepin County Health System, Smiley's Clinic, North Memorial Health system, and Setzer Pharmacy. The complete report can be found at the following link. The report summarizes strengths and areas for improvement as it relates to accreditation standards and other priority areas. This feedback will be very helpful for the future.
UofMvisit060809.pdf